Doing the impossible can mean all kinds of things to all kinds of people.

For some, doing the impossible means climbing the highest mountain. Or competing in the Olympics/Ironman Triathlon/any other high-stakes sporting event demanding that its participants display their physical fitness. Or directing a $200 million romantic drama about the sinking of the Titanic.

For others, doing the impossible means getting out of bed and getting from the beginning of the day to the end of the day while living with mental illness. Or sitting in front of the blank page and convincing yourself that you’re willing and able to write a story that only you can write. It means becoming comfortable with your sexuality and hoping that the people in your life who you call family and friends will feel the same way and knowing that you can still keep going if they don’t.

For me, doing the impossible involved moving out of an extremely dysfunctional and emotionally abusive household, where I lived with someone who made me wonder constantly whether I could and would send him to either the hospital or the morgue, and leaving that house once and for all to find a place I can call home, where I was finally able to achieve something resembling peace of mind.

These past few daysweeks months have been painful, horrifying, traumatizing, and infuriating for so many people and it’s never easy to be reminded yet again that Ernest Hemingway was lying when he wrote that the world is a fine place and worth fighting for (enough that you’ll nod your head in agreement with William Somerset when he says that he agrees with only the second part of that statement).

And yet, despite all of that, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that even though this world is populated with far too many people who are willing and able to make the lives of those around feel like all nine circles of Hell and make them wonder when it’s going to end and whether or not they can keep going…

…There are also people who are willing and able to do what they can to make their own lives better and happier to live with, and also do what they can to have that same effect on others. To remind other people that this world is a better place with them still in it, and that they have so much to offer and contribute, even when everyone and everything is telling them the complete opposite. To remind them to keep going so they can one day complete a task that was once considered impossible, and then they can tell others that they actually did it, that it actually was possible, and that they are capable of doing the same too, even if it won’t always be easy.

To those of you in the Comments section: what have you accomplished that was once considered impossible?